


Christmas Spirit

by orphan_account



Category: Sorted (Website) RPF
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Christmas Party, M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-21 14:48:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17045690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Jamie terrorises the Sorted Christmas party with a bunch of mistletoe, and everyone's surprised when Mike takes the tradition seriously and snogs Barry senseless.





	Christmas Spirit

The Sorted Christmas party is at Barry’s flat this year. It’s perhaps a little small for the fifteen-odd people at the party, but there’s a comfortable intimacy so nobody feels the need to complain. Almost everyone’s not quite sober, and Ben and James are commenting on Barry’s unnecessary kitchen accessories while they put the finishing touches on the food; while the original plan had been to have a big dinner, everyone (especially Ben and James) had voted on drinks and finger food instead. Jamie has tried to help in the kitchen at least three times, and has been turned away increasingly forcefully each time.

Barry’s not surprised: Jamie has taken it upon himself to be the ‘Christmas Cupid’ and hold a little bunch of mistletoe over people’s heads at every opportunity. By this point, everyone has either given or received a peck on the cheek at Jamie’s insistence, and Ben and James have been subjected to a number of mistletoe kisses already – James had complained that all this kissing was ruining his meringue, and Ben had threatened Jamie with a wooden spoon if a mistletoe berry ended up anywhere near the food. Everyone else has just accepted that their conversations will be interrupted sporadically by kiss breaks.

The only person not here yet is Mike, which is typical. The party’s been in full swing for almost an hour, and Barry’s having a great time, but he finds his eyes constantly darting towards the door in case someone tries the doorknob. He avoids getting too far into the flat, not wanting the sound of knocking to be drowned out by the music. Jamie notices his hovering, but instead of commenting he just hovers with him, and Barry’s grateful – both for Jamie not saying anything, and for making his own weird behaviour a little less obvious.

Lucy and Jamie are in the middle of telling Barry about the first time they got Evie to eat broccoli without spitting it out when there’s a knock at the door. Jamie gives Barry a look then ducks away, but Barry has no time to wonder what he’s up to because he doesn’t want to leave Mike waiting a second longer than necessary.

He opens the door to Mike wearing his red polka dot Christmas jumper, the one with a big reindeer on the front. His hair is a little wet and there’s this delightful flush on his cheeks: Barry’s not sure if it’s raining outside or if Mike was in a rush after a shower, but either way it’s unbelievably cute. Mike pulls him in for a hug, and Barry lets himself relax into it a little more than is entirely necessary, which he'll blame on the booze if need be. Mike smiles warmly at him before wading into the party, leaving Barry gazing after him fondly.

Jamie catches Barry’s eye and winks, so Barry busies himself with locking the door, since Mike was the last to turn up (as usual). He turns back around to see Mike pulling James into a hug, and there’s this annoying pang in his stomach when he sees James’ little smile. It pisses him off that he gets so jealous when Mike shows affection to other people, because Mike is such an affectionate person, and these are his _friends_ , for God’s sake. It’s hard, though, when all he wants is to get just a little bit more than everyone else.

For a while it’s an ordinary Christmas party: Ben and James come out of the kitchen every so often to bring out new plates of food and grab drinks, Jamie continues his rounds with the mistletoe, and everyone drinks and talks happily. Barry ends up chatting with Mike about last night’s football match, and Mike’s getting particularly fired up about the commentators’ useless drivel when Jamie pops up behind him, holding that stupid mistletoe with a shit-eating grin on his face. Barry sees it first and panics, heart pounding as Mike follows the line of Barry’s sight up over his own head, because even just a kiss on the cheek is too much for Barry right now.

Mike grins, apparently unaware of Barry’s anxiety, and all the warning Barry gets is a hand at the back of his neck before Mike’s lips are on his. He freezes, waiting for Mike to pull away but he doesn’t, and when the man opens his mouth a little more against Barry’s lips he finds himself sinking into the embrace. It’s a good thing Mike’s hand stays on his neck because Barry’s knees are weak, his body sagging with the intensity of the kiss, and his arms instinctively wrap around Mike’s shoulders to keep himself upright. Kissing Mike is exactly how Barry had expected it to be, right down to the fact that Mike keeps teasingly biting at his bottom lip instead of letting Barry deepen the kiss like he wants to.

Even when Barry feels Mike pull away he doesn’t open his eyes; he wants to prolong this moment, draw out the tingling of his lips that matches what he feels in his hands. Finally he drops his arms, blinking his eyes open to take in Mike’s dazed grin and, behind him, Jamie’s stunned face. He steps back and takes a deep breath.

“You’d better move that mistletoe before I kiss him again,” Mike says to Jamie, laughing when the man snatches his arm back towards himself immediately.

“Everyone else just went for a kiss on the cheek, mate,” James says from behind Barry, laughter tinging his words. Mike shrugs.

“Everyone else is a coward,” he replies, throwing a parting wink at Barry then moving off towards the drinks table. He leaves the three men in his wake: James smirking knowingly, Jamie staring at the mistletoe like it’s a deadly weapon, and Barry more lost than he’s ever felt in his life.

When Barry finally manages to move, Mike is nowhere to be seen. He dazedly wanders into the kitchen to escape the noise of the party, suddenly overwhelmed by it, and finds Ben and James in a hushed conversation over a tray of mini lemon meringue tarts. They look up as he comes in, that smirk still plastered on James’ face, and a contemplative look on Ben’s. Barry sighs, preparing himself for the inevitable grilling.

“You okay, Baz?” Ben asks, genuine concern in his voice. James grins at him from over Ben’s shoulder, like he knows that Barry’s more than okay. Barry just nods, words still beyond him.

“Not sure what’s got into Mike tonight,” Ben carries on, going back to blowtorching the meringue on top of the tarts.

“If there was ever such a thing as having _too much_ Christmas spirit, that’s Mike tonight,” James adds, piling finished tarts onto a plate. “Though I can’t say I’m surprised.”

Barry frowns in confusion, and Ben shoots James a look that Barry doesn’t catch.

“What I mean,” James hurries to clarify, “is that Jamie can’t wander around with mistletoe all night and act surprised when someone takes it seriously.”

Barry tries to laugh but it just comes out as a half-hearted huff of breath, and he fiddles with the pile of napkins on the bench in front of him. He can’t really remember why he came in here, but he stays even when James heads out with the plate of desserts, trying to settle himself.

“Baz,” Ben asks, his voice quiet, “are you really okay?” With no more food to fuss over, he’s facing Barry properly and holding his eye. Barry nods again and takes a deep breath.

“Just wasn’t expecting it,” he breathes out, not bothering to explain – there’s no doubt James has already filled Ben in on exactly what happened.

“Is it good or bad? That it happened?”

_Now that’s the million-dollar question_ , Barry thinks. It’s good because he’s wanted it for as long as he can remember, but it’s bad because there’s no way he’s ever going to get that again. And now that he knows what kissing Mike is like, he’ll never be able to stop thinking about it.

“It’s…” he starts, unsure of how much he wants to let on. Ben’s face is so open, though, so caring – surely if he can say this to anyone, it’s Ben? “It’s good, I guess. Yeah. Good.”

He shakes his head, knowing he's not making sense, but Ben nods in understanding.

“Okay,” Ben smiles. “So you’d want it to happen again?”

“Christ,” Barry sighs, but he nods. “Yeah, but I don’t think it's going to.”

Ben tilts his head.

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that.”

Then he walks out, grabbing the pile of napkins on his way and leaving Barry even more confused.

_What the hell does that mean?_

 

* * *

 

Lucy and Jamie leave early to relieve their babysitter, Jamie still holding his little bunch of mistletoe like a kid with their new favourite toy. Barry smiles, just knowing that Jamie’s going to terrorise Lucy with it as soon as they get home. The party carries on for a while after, and eventually Barry starts to relax again; Mike catches his eye from across the room every so often but he keeps his distance, though Ben keeps eyeing Barry meaningfully and tilting his head towards the blond. Barry does his best to ignore it, focusing instead on Katie’s story about meeting her boyfriend’s parents. She keeps him laughing for a while, clearly sensing his anxiety, and he’s grateful. 

When all the food has been eaten and nearly all the alcohol has been consumed, people start filing out of the flat. Barry offers beds for anyone who’s had too much to drink, but there are enough sober drivers to give lifts that nobody needs to crash. He feels bad for being relieved: while it wouldn’t have been a problem for people to stay, he’s glad to have the place to himself. He’s definitely going to need space to figure out what the hell happened tonight.

Which would be fine if Mike didn’t offer to stay and help him clean up.

He does his best to politely refuse but Mike insists, and Ben chimes in to say it’s very nice of Mike to offer. Barry shoots him a scathing look as he heads for the door, but Ben just grins and whispers, “Thank me later.” Barry rolls his eyes.

James is the last to leave. He gives Mike a long hug before he goes, clearly muttering something in his ear, and Barry catches a blush on Mike’s face just before he’s swept up into James’ arms. James gives him an ostentatious kiss on the head, laughing when Barry shoves him out the door.

Then it’s just the two of them, and Barry’s panic returns.

Mike starts cleaning up straight away, finding the bin bags and filling one after the other with the piles of paper plates and used napkins. Barry stays in the kitchen to begin with, putting the dishwasher on and hand-washing up the stuff that won’t fit, eventually grabbing a bin bag of his own to help Mike. They work in relative silence, the stereo carrying on softly around them, but Barry’s movements feel sluggish with the weight of his anxiety. He keeps sucking in a breath, about to speak, then just sighing it out and getting back to work.

Finally, he cracks.

“Why did you kiss me?” he asks, voice unavoidably loud in the quiet flat. Mike stops what he’s doing but doesn’t turn around.

“Because I know a perfect opportunity when it’s presented to me,” he says cryptically, then he wanders into the kitchen. Barry stares after him, thoroughly confused; this whole night he’s felt like the rug’s been pulled out from under him, and he’s desperate to find his feet. He decides to figure out exactly where he stands.

“Funny,” he says from the doorway of the kitchen, watching Mike tie up yet another bag of rubbish, “I’d argue that _this_ is a perfect opportunity, too.”

He’s impressed with how level his voice is because his heart is pounding. For someone who takes a lot of chances in his professional life, he really plays it safe romantically, so this is entirely out of his comfort zone. Mike slowly straightens up and faces him, and Barry’s not sure if he made the right choice because the man’s face is totally blank. He realises his palms are damp with sweat.

“Then maybe you should take it.”

Barry feels frozen solid, terrified that he’s misunderstanding what Mike means. After a beat Mike goes back to what he was doing, shoving more cups into a garbage bag like everything is totally fine. The thing that impels Barry forward is the idea that Mike might think he doesn’t want this - he can't have that. He grabs Mike’s shoulder with more confidence than he feels, barely giving himself time to think before he’s pulling him into a kiss.

It starts off vaguely painful because Barry leans in a little too forcefully, worried that Mike will pull away, but they soon relax into it and Barry lets him take the lead. It’s somehow even better than the first one, despite the fact that they’re literally surrounded by garbage: when Mike’s hands settle on Barry’s hips it sends tingles up his sides and straight to his stomach, and this time Mike doesn’t tease. He pulls Barry close so he can get a hand on his jaw and tilt his head up, kissing him so deeply Barry’s knees buckle. His arms wrap around Mike’s neck again and this time Mike smiles against his lips, making a happy little noise around Barry’s tongue in his mouth.

When Mike pulls back to suck in a breath, he’s only gone for a second before diving right back in. His hunger momentarily sated, he goes back to teasing, worrying Barry’s lip between his teeth and smiling when the man pants heavily.

“Why did you really kiss me?” Barry asks after reluctantly putting some distance between them, trying to clear his head somewhat. He’s a little proud of himself when he sees how flustered Mike looks: his hair is messy and Barry imagines that the flush on his face and neck travels under that terrible Christmas jumper, too. He’s breathing hard, and his lips looks so deliciously red it takes all of Barry’s self-control not to lean right back in.

“Do we really need to talk about this now?” Mike counters, his eyes not leaving Barry’s mouth. Barry licks his lips just to be a tease, loving how it makes Mike breathe out hard.

“Yes,” Barry insists, “because I can’t deal with this if you’re just going to blame it on the booze tomorrow.”

Then he pauses, because that felt far too close to a confession, and he knows that Mike is the king of dismissing feelings. He might not mean to, but he loves a light situation and will do anything to make sure things don’t get too serious. Normally Barry can deal with that, because two can play at that game, but tonight has caught him completely off-guard.

“Why did you kiss me?” he asks again, resigned. Mike opens his mouth like he’s about to make a joke, but seems to catch the look on Barry’s face and stops. He bites his lip, just looking, then he nods.

“Because I’ve wanted to for a long time,” he finally says. He nods again, this little smile twitching at his lips like he’s glad to have gotten that out there. Barry doesn’t say anything; he’s not sure he could form words even if he wanted to.

“I’ve wanted to kiss you for years,” Mike carries on, still looking at Barry like he never wants to stop. “I thought it was just curiosity when we were teenagers, that I was just figuring out my sexuality, so I didn’t do anything because it wouldn’t be fair to treat you like an experiment. Then you started dating girls so I assumed that was that. And _then_ ,” he says, smiling properly now in a way that makes butterflies riot in Barry’s stomach, “we went clubbing in Birmingham that one time and I saw you grinding on some guy, looking like you’d never been happier in your life, and my _God_ , that image has plagued my dreams ever since.”

Barry chuckles, remembering that night: he’d seen Mike looking and played it up, expecting to make him uncomfortable but Mike had just kept staring. It’s funny that that was when Mike had started properly fancying him, because that’s exactly when Barry’s own crush had been cemented: he’d liked the man since school, but had assumed he had no chance. Mike rarely dated, but the people he _did_ date were solid 10s, and Barry had never thought he could measure up.  

“But I was terrified,” Mike continues, interrupting Barry’s introspection, “because even though I knew you liked guys you never seemed that interested in me, and we’re close friends, _and_ we work together, so it just…I just never felt like I had a chance.”

“Until now,” Barry says, his voice a little breathy because Mike has just said everything Barry himself has felt over the years. He’s a little bowled over by the fact that Mike feels _anything_ towards him beyond friendship, let alone something so strong it’s carried on over all this time.

Mike nods, gazing at Barry with so much tenderness it takes his breath away.

“Until now,” he repeats. Barry pulls him in for another kiss, desperate for more contact now that he knows how good it feels. Mike’s hands settle on Barry’s waist again and he finds himself being walked backwards into the counter. He moans when Mike’s body keeps coming, settling against the line of his body and pushing up into him. Barry rolls his hips to make Mike groan into his mouth, and a spike of heat ripples through him when Mike’s hips buck reflexively.

“Fuck,” Mike whispers against his mouth. “Always knew you’d be so responsive.”

Barry chuckles, the sound cut short by another moan when Mike’s body rocks into him.

“Take me to bed and I’ll show you just how responsive I can be,” he retorts, loving how Mike’s eyes darken

He has no idea where the hell _that_ came from, but it clearly had the desired effect because Mike gets his hands under Barry’s ass and hauls him up, carrying him in the vague direction of the bedroom.

“Remind me to compliment Janice next time I see her, she’s done a good job,” Barry jokes in between kisses to Mike’s neck, laughing happily when Mike groans into his shoulder.

“ _Please_ don’t mention my personal trainer when I’m about to fuck you senseless,” he mutters, “it really messes with my focus.”

“Sorry,” Barry says sweetly, not sorry at all. Mike scoffs as he sets Barry down.

“Yeah yeah, whatever you say. Just get your clothes off.”

“Bossy,” Barry grins, dodging a swat to the ass. Mike tries for an annoyed expression and fails spectacularly, unable to tamp down the smile that breaks through. Barry steals another kiss, taking full advantage, and when he pulls away Mike’s eyes stay closed, face lit up by a blissful smile.

“Best Christmas party ever,” Barry laughs as he helps Mike pull his God-awful Christmas jumper over his head.

**Author's Note:**

> Mike’s jumper is the one from [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpFsebeKAcc).
> 
> I wrote most of this while trying to stave off a panic attack so if the plot doesn’t make sense, just know that it’s because nothing in my life makes sense. I just wanted to write some Christmas fluff, and try out a different pairing than my normal Mike/James obsession. As usual, many thanks go to the Sorted discord for inspiring me.


End file.
